


Looking For A Buzz

by olddarkmachine



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drinking, Inspired by Music, M/M, Pool & Billiards, Prompt Fill, also an excuse to write them making out, an excuse to write gildarts and silver at a bar, thank you prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 06:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14231616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olddarkmachine/pseuds/olddarkmachine
Summary: Turning his head ever so slightly so Gildarts could see the quick flick of his black gaze in his direction, he sent the stick forward, knocking the cue ball into one coated in emerald green with a loud crack. He watched as it smacked into another, before ricocheting the opposite direction and falling into the pocket with a solid thunk.Grin pulling wider, Silver straightened his stance as he tilted the cue in his direction, and winked.For you, the look said, echoing his earlier words.Gildarts pulled the bottle back up to his lips, knocking back another long drag as he used the opportunity to pull his gaze away.He really,reallyshouldn’t.But he would all the same.





	Looking For A Buzz

**Author's Note:**

> This has one of my fave bits I’ve ever written in it. I wrote it and promptly had to walk away for a second because I was like GOD DAMMIT THAT’S GOOD SHIT. Can you guess what it is?
> 
> Inspired by [ Looking For A Buzz by Ashley McBryde](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmizSlr285o). ~~well, technically inspired by everything by her lol also look up a little dive bar in dahlonega~~

Gildarts wasn’t sure why he was even at the bar. Admittedly, he wasn’t even much of a fan of drinking, having proven himself a certified lightweight which he had learned long ago only led him to trouble. Yet, something about a long day and the unseen pull of the universe had dragged him towards the small, dilapidated shack with nothing more than the word  **BAR**  written above its door in black paint.

It was the kind of place where fights broke out over petty things, where men lost money, and most importantly, where they lost themselves in the hope of finding something else.

Maybe that’s why he was there, balanced on a barstool with cracking leather and with a near empty bottle of beer tucked safely against his palm.

Then again, it was hard to lose yourself searching for something when you didn’t even know about to find it.

The thing was love, and it eluded him with all the quick grace of a thief in the night. He could swear he felt something like it working its way through his veins, riding the backs of bright lightning, but by the next morning, it was always gone.

Which, he supposed meant it was a different four lettered L word.

Once upon a time, he had found the thrill in it all. Thought that would be enough to placate whatever needs he had that made him so undeniably human. But life had a funny way of proving people wrong, and now Gildarts couldn’t help but find himself wondering what it would feel like to finally fill the empty space in his chest that was centered just to the left.

Of course, it wasn’t like he actually thought that the bar would provide him that much, yet here he was all the same.

Sighing loudly, he scrubbed a weary palm against the stubble that lined his jaw, dropping his lids as he worked the tension out of it with his callused fingers.

“Long night?” The bartender’s voice was colored with just enough curiosity to make it seem like he genuinely cared. Gildarts understood, having once been a bartender himself in college. Give the folks sitting at the counter just enough to think someone was actually listened and your chances of more money skyrocketed.

“Long day,” he said gruffly, opening his eyes to look at the man with his unruly black hair and strange, studded brows. “Long week, actually.”

It earned him a low chuckle as he nodded, grabbing a glass and absentmindedly wiping at its rim with a dish towel. He understood that one too. Keep your hands busy just to pass the time.

“I understand that one,” the man replied easily with a quick nod of his head towards the bottle in Gildarts’ fist. “Lemme know if you could use another one of those.”

He really shouldn’t. Gildarts could already feel the thrum at the bottom of his skull that served as a barrier of white noise between his brain and his thoughts. What he should do is tell the bartender thanks, but no thanks with a wave of his hand as he nursed the last couple swallows.

The words sat carefully on the tip of his tongue, waiting for the push that would send them careening over the ledge of his lips when a sharp crack and annoyed growl cut across the bar. A soft, rolling hush followed before he felt the gentle thud of a pool ball against the side of his boot.

Turning his attentions down, he saw the bright blue of the “2” ball.

“Hey, man,” a voice steeped in darkness said, sending a drop of something darker rolling down his spine. “Mind if I get that?”

Head turning to look over his shoulder, he was hit with the sudden and quick crush of a burning weight against his lungs as his gaze roved over the man’s face. His hair was onyx, standing in the kind of disarray that was just this side of fashionable and exposed the strong square lines of his jaw. Beneath expressive brows and a darkened stretch of scar that cut towards the right stood two burning ember eyes that seemed to cut through the meat of his chest, cracking bone and severing nerves with ease.

The deep red of his plaid shirt stood out against the tan of his skin, and Gildarts found his gaze riding the tracks of the pattern down his frame.

Very faintly, he heard the muffled sound of his molten voice as he continued to speak.

“What?” Gildarts asked, eyes snapping back up towards the man’s face, which now bore a look of open and honest intrigue. It smoothed out the line of his eyebrows and dropped a couple years from his face.

It also sent an unknown flutter of  _something_  that twisted his gut.

“That,” was all he supplied, pointing down towards Gildarts’ foot.

Ah. The ball.

“Yeah, no, sure,” Gildarts stuttered before he bent at the waist to reach for it, his fingers shakily caressing the top of the smooth plastic before finally closing around it. Anchoring himself to the counter, he pulled himself back up just in time to catch the stranger’s eyes flick to the side.

“You must be new here,” he said, mouth twitching upward with the hook of an inside joke as his gaze held onto the caramel curves of his beer bottle.

Cocking his head to the side, Gildarts held the ball out towards the man and dropped it into his palm. If he noticed the eruption of popping shocks that rocked through the brush of his fingers against the heel of his palm, the man didn’t show it as he looked back at him.

“What makes you say that?” Gildarts asked, swallowing down the quiver that threatened to shake his words. Around him, he felt the air thicken until it was a near tangible thing that shook with the heat emitting from the depths of the man’s eyes.

“Intuition,” he said lowly as his fist closed around the ball and his smile arched into a full, pointed crescent. It was bright as it parted around a husky laugh.

“And the fact no one gets that beer if they’ve been here more than once.”

His cheeks lit with fire at the jab as he crossed his arms over his chest and straightened his back, narrowing his eyes as he tried to ignore the quickening beat of his heart.

“What if I just like it?” Gildarts said, setting his tone in a thick defiance in hopes to mask the otherwise breathlessness of it.

The man’s look tightened as if he was trying to pick apart his thoughts. His fingers worked around the plastic ball quickly before finally closing around it, his knuckles going white with the tension of it before he braced a forearm against the counter and leant into Gildarts’ space.

Onyx flicked down to his lips as he dragged a sharp breath through his teeth.

“My name’s Silver,” he suddenly said, his name ringing with the very same sound of the metal it encapsulated.

 _Silver_.

“What?” Gildarts said, tongue going rogue as it asked the questioned. Holding his gaze, Silver lifted his hand so it balanced on the apex of his elbow, the “2” of the ball staring back at him as he lifted two fingers in a V. It earned a nod from the bartender who dipped low quickly before bringing two dark bottles from beneath the bar.

The caps clicked quietly against the wood of the counter as they were popped off before he set them next to Silver’s elbow.

“So you know the name of the man that just bought you a drink.”

White noise filled each of his senses, thrumming through his limbs and stalling his voice as he just looked back. There was something he should say, he knew, but the unknown flutter had spread itself across the back of his ribs.

 _Butterflies_ , his mind provided dumbly.  _Those are butterflies_.

“Gildarts,” he finally spoke after unsticking his tongue from the roof of his mouth. Silver arched a brow in question.

“My name is Gildarts,” he tried again. Leaning in further, he felt the brush of Silver’s breath ghost across his face. Eyes smoldering with the same intensity of live coals, he could feel their burn as they etched lines across his skin.

Gildarts noted that he smelled like mint and smoky mahogany.

“Well, Gildarts. If you need another drink, you know where to find me,” Silver soothed as he tilted his head back in the direction of the pool table where his friends were watching and waiting. After successfully stealing the air from Gildarts’ lungs, he pulled back and grabbed one of the bottles with his free hand.

“For you,” he added as he tilted his bottle in the direction of the leftover beer.

Then, with all the suddenness that he had appeared, Silver was walking away, filling his vision with the wide set of his back.

Head spinning from the exchange that was all the bit more intoxicating than the new beer that sat just to the left of his hand, he turned his attention to the bottle in an attempt to anchor himself to something.

Anything.

Swallowing down the heart that was dancing on the back of his tongue, he watched as a small drop of condensation rolled down over the black label.

 _I really shouldn’t_ , he thought to himself as his fingers closed around the neck. The glass was cool against his lips as he tilted it back, the deep notes of hops and chocolate coating his tongue as he felt the burning presence of a gaze on his face. Cutting his eyes to the side, he caught Silver’s stare from where he stood opposite him at a pool table, weight supported by a stick as his gaze burned with something hungry.

A slow, lazy smile curled the edges of his lips upward as he dipped his head in acknowledgement.

Warmth bloomed in his chest as he swallowed down the beer, the fizzy tang tracing a line down his throat.

 _I really shouldn’t_ , he thought again as he set the bottle down on the counter with a soft clink of glass on wood. Before him, Silver shifted his hold on the stick before leaning down over the corner of the table, lining his cue up with the guiding shape of his forefinger on his middle finger.

Another shiver rocked down Gildarts’ spine as he traced Silver’s sculpted forearm as he worked the stick back and forth. Whether or not he realized exactly what he was doing as he settled lower against the table, he had no way of knowing, but by the way his smile turned cocky, Gildarts had a sneaking suspicion he did.

Turning his head ever so slightly so Gildarts could see the quick flick of his black gaze in his direction, he sent the stick forward, knocking the cue ball into one coated in emerald green with a loud crack. He watched as it smacked into another, before ricocheting the opposite direction and falling into the pocket with a solid thunk.

Grin pulling wider, Silver straightened his stance as he tilted the cue in his direction, and winked.

 _For you_ , the look said, echoing his earlier words.

Gildarts pulled the bottle back up to his lips, knocking back another long drag as he used the opportunity to pull his gaze away.

He really, _really_  shouldn’t.

But he would all the same.

***

Gildarts wasn’t drunk. He wasn’t. He was pleasantly buzzed to the point he could feel the warmth of the alcohol making his insides feel just a bit too hot and too big to be inside his skin. That feeling was the exact reason he had made his way to the front of the bar to begin with.

All he had really been looking for was some cool air to chase away the burn that was marking the inside of his flesh with an unknown char.

Instead, he found himself facing the embers that had set him aflame.

After catching Silver’s wink from across the room, he’d made a point to keep his eyes on anything else in the bar aside from the man.

At least, he made a point to whenever he felt the warm gaze return to his direction. It had almost become a bit of a game until Gildarts had turned his attention to the bartender to close his tab. In the few minutes of the exchange, Silver had managed to slip away, leaving the pool table he’d occupied the entire night empty and the space in Gildarts’ chest emptier.

Acid had leaked into the edges of the hole that had spread behind his sternum and stolen his breath when he’d realized that the man had left.

 _Disappointment_ , the small, snarking voice at the back of his mind had quipped as it gave the feeling a name.

Now, as he watched Silver’s gaze drag a long, languid line down his body before flicking back up again, the feeling unfurled into something hotter.

Something brighter.

Something he couldn’t quite place.

 _Lust?_  The voice asked, almost as confused as he was.

“Looking for that other drink?” Silver asked, words molten as he stepped into Gildarts’ space. Heat rolled off his chest, enveloping him as he tried to remind himself to breathe.

Looking, yes. But he wasn’t looking for a drink.  _What was he looking for?_

Shaking his head, he took a calculated step forward. Standing like this, Gildarts noticed that he was a couple inches taller. The movement caused Silver’s mouth to break wide as his eyes lit with understanding.

Lips moving as he spoke again, the words were nothing but a distant hum as Gildarts found himself tracing the shape of that damned smile that was equal parts sweet and sinful. For just a moment, he found himself wondering what exactly that smile would taste like.

And then, he knew.

He wasn’t sure which one of them had closed the distance between them, pushing the air from the inches into the inescapable press of their lips. Starting unsure, the slight pressure shook the very foundations on which he should, cracking the earth around him until he was sure it would swallow him whole.

The realization of it startled a gasp from him as he opened into the kiss. Catching the sound between his teeth, Silver bit it in half as he pressed further into him.

Heat lightning spread across the back of his eyelids, sparking pops of light against the darkness as they drifted shut as he fisted his fingers within the fabric of Silver’s shirt to anchor him to him. Each strike of electricity sent another line of wildfire dancing through his body, and suddenly, he was burning right there in the parking lot.

Sharp spikes of pain just this side of pleasurable twisted at his nape as fingers slid through the strands of his hair.

It wasn’t until the stars in his vision were accompanied by an ache in his lungs that he pulled away.

The breathy sound of his gasp rasped across the otherwise empty parking lot as he opened his eyes to see Silver’s filled with hunger and darkness that left his skin crying out for more.

 _More, more, more_.

They both stood, chests heaving and hands still grasping at the other in a wordless standoff.

“What were you looking here for tonight?” Silver finally managed as he loosened his hold on Gildarts’ hair, pulling his hands down over the sides of his neck and brushing gently down his chest before they fell down to his sides.

It was the question of the hour. What was he looking for? Something in the way his gut twisted told him he knew the answer to the overarching question.

But here?

Tonight?

“I was just looking for a buzz,” Gildarts breathed around the foreign shock turning his chest into an open canvas for a whole new universe. For some reason, the answer eased the tension from Silver’s shoulders.

“And I was just looking for a game,” Silver replied easily, the corner of his mouth tugging up over a sharpened canine. Carefully, he reached up with one hand, his palm pressing lightly against the line of Gildarts’ jaw as his thumb brushed over his kiss bitten lip.

“Looks like we both found something a bit better.”

Breath stuttering between his teeth and over the tip of Silver’s thumb, he tried to hold the expanding universe within the bone of his chest. A hush fell over them as he pressed minutely into the touch.

“Can I take you somewhere?” Silver’s voice was quick, as if it’d come unbidden from his mouth. Gildarts bit down on the smile that threatened the edge of his lips, because he knew that feeling.

“I haven’t been drinking,” he added with a shrug in answer to a question he didn’t ask.

With his loosened tongue, spurred forward by the liquid courage that had turned his thoughts pleasantly hazy, Gildarts waited for a moment as if he was gathering his words.

As if his answer wasn’t sitting right there against the back of his teeth. And then—

“Home,” he breathed.

Smile cresting over and filled with bits of celestial ice, Silver pushed forward once more to brush their lips together in a single chaste kiss that rolled fire down to the tips of his toes.

The unfamiliar ache rocked through him again as Silver pulled back.

“Well, come on then,” he said around his grin, fingers brushing down the back of Gildarts’ wrist and around until their palms met and fingers laced.

“Let’s get you home.”

*****************


End file.
